


precocious little scamp

by leifmotifff



Category: Batman Beyond
Genre: Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker - Freeform, Incest, M/M, Missing Scene, Pre-Slash, Sibling Incest, i am fucking up the batman beyond tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-06
Updated: 2016-08-06
Packaged: 2018-07-29 19:11:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7695991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leifmotifff/pseuds/leifmotifff
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Terry feels badly about neglecting his little brother in favor of fighting crime. </p><p>Missing scene from <em>Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker.</em></p>
            </blockquote>





	precocious little scamp

**Author's Note:**

  * For [garbagecollector](https://archiveofourown.org/users/garbagecollector/gifts).



> Good job collecting garbage <3
> 
> VERY loosely inspired by these beautiful and totally innocent sketches. http://imgur.com/RzDMLko, http://imgur.com/mlwpjrE

The morning after Wayne tells Terry to give the suit back is a grey one, and the thick fog that rolls through the city obscures the Gotham skyline usually visible from his bedroom window.

Despite getting more than eight hours, Terry doesn’t feel particularly well rested – chaotic dreams seemed to disturb him all night.

After trying and failing to fall back asleep for the better part of an hour, he gives up and rises from his bed, stretching. He's not used to the early morning chill, and it makes his skin break out in gooseflesh.  

Squinting into the pale light seeping softly into his bedroom, Terry roots sleepily through his messy closet for something to throw on, then pads into the kitchen where Matt is already sitting at the table, playing on his handheld console.

Matt looks up when he comes in, eyes widening a little in surprise. Terry doesn’t wish him good morning; just moves listlessly to rummage through the cabinets and pour some dry cereal into a bowl.

Matt snatches the box out of his hands as soon as he’s done, and Terry just rolls his eyes and reaches into the fridge for the milk as Matt makes a mess all over the counter, half his arm shoved into the cereal box. When Terry continues to ignore him, Matt, predictably, cannot stay quiet.

“Mom, come quick,” he calls with false panic, “Some weirdo broke into our house!”

His mom appears a second later, exasperated. “Matty, what are you yelling about?”

Matt points at his brother, all theatrics. “There's a stranger sitting at our table!” 

“Ha, ha,” Terry replies humorlessly, his mouth full.

His mom quirks a smile and indulges the younger boy. “That's your brother.”

“Never seen him before in my life,” Matt insists.

His mom takes a seat at the table with him. “It is rare that you're up before noon, Terry,” she remarks. “What with your job and all.”

“I'm not working for Mr. Wayne anymore,” Terry says sullenly. Unwilling to elaborate further, he stuffs his mouth with another spoonful.

Thankfully his mom seems to sense his demeanor and doesn’t press. “Well, it will be nice to have you home for a change.” She turns to his brother. “Right, Matt?”

“Sure. Great,” Matt grumbles. He stops fishing for the toy or prize or whatever he’s looking for in the cereal box and climbs up onto a chair to glare at Terry. “Just when I was getting used to being an only child,” he sasses.

Despite his foul mood, Terry can’t help but respond to his brother's razzing. He flicks a bit of cereal from his spoon straight onto Matt’s forehead, the boy’s resulting bratty exclamation strangely satisfying.

After breakfast, Terry shuts himself in his room and doesn’t do much of anything. He watches TV for a couple hours, making sure not to pause the channel on any news programs, lest he see a bulletin of a bank robbery, or a carjacking, or anything else that might tempt him to go over to the manor and make his case for the suit.

By two o’clock that afternoon Terry is still moping around. He knows he should use his newly freed up Saturday to spend some much-needed catch-up time with Dana, but he can’t even bring himself to get properly dressed.

He gives Max a call though, to let her know she wouldn’t need to come over later to do recon on the T’s latest activities, but mainly to vent on the phone about the old man while pacing indignantly around the room in his underwear.

He continues ruminating bitterly on Wayne long after he hangs up with Max though, and Terry’s still in bed glowering at his blank cell phone screen when Matt walks into his room – without knocking, as usual.

Matt takes one look at him before raising an eyebrow and closing the door behind him to lean on it.

“What’s the point of not going to work if you’re just going to lie around all day?” he says, tone laced with his special brand of preteen insolence.

Terry’s still sore though, and he responds nastily. “Yeah, well what else is there to do? Hang out with _you?_ _”_

He immediately regrets his words, even before he sees the flash of hurt on his little brother’s face, though Matt is quick to school his features back into a blank expression.

Great, now he’s being a dick to a little kid. Very nice. Isn’t he supposed to be the mature one of the two?

Terry sighs, setting his phone on his bedside table. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that.”

Matt doesn’t say anything, still somewhat cowed by the harsh statement.

Terry feels guilty, which is utterly ridiculous, given that Matt’s usually the one teasing Terry ruthlessly about – well, literally everything. He’s always poking his head into Terry’s business, ratting on him to their mom, trying to get a rise out of the older boy in some way or another, and—

Realization hits Terry like a slap in the face, and he instantly feels ten times worse. So caught up in his own damn ego that he didn’t even recognize it until now.

Of course. What do kids do when they want attention? They act out towards adults and tease other kids. Being Matt’s older brother, Terry obviously falls somewhere in between. Man, he is such an _idiot_.

Another wave of guilt laps uneasily at his conscience. With their mom working full-time to support them, and Terry gone all the time playing Dark Knight, who was there to be a role model for Matt? Who was going to make sure his little brother didn’t fall into the wrong crowd like Terry did back then, when he wasn’t that much older than Matt is now?

Matt is still standing there, looking so young as he observes Terry from his spot at the door, hands clasped behind his back and chewing his bottom lip. Yet there’s something quietly knowing about the way Matt waits, almost expectantly, for Terry to continue.

Terry forces an apologetic smile. “Come here,” he says softly, patting the spot next to him on the bed. 

Incredibly, Matt still doesn’t speak, but he climbs up onto the mattress without hesitation. He gets right up in Terry’s space and mirrors his pose, laying on his side so they they’re facing each other, those big, inquisitive eyes fixed on him.

“Look, sorry I’ve been such a jerk,” Terry finally says, voice low. He adjusts his position, propping his arm up on the pillow and leaning his head on his hand. “See, me not working for Mr. Wayne anymore… it wasn’t exactly by choice,” Terry admits unhappily, his gaze dropping down, bracing himself for a ribbing.

And he's right; it's almost comical the way Matt’s eyes widen, delighted. “You got _fired?_ ”

Terry’s mouth twists reluctantly in amusement. _“No,”_ he answers, drawing out the syllable with exaggerated impatience, and he can’t resist poking the younger boy in the chest for his cheek. Matt just giggles and swats his hand away, eyes twinkling with mischief.

It’s almost embarrassing, the smile that cracks on Terry’s face, how his heart swells at seeing his little brother so pleased. He sobers though, mind drifting back to the night before, gaze becoming unseeing as he recalls the conversation with Wayne before he'd stormed out. 

“Not exactly, anyway,” Terry says, turning the man's words over in his head as he speaks. Now that’s he’s calmed down, he tries to be objective, for a change. “Mr. Wayne thinks I don’t really know what I want, and, truthfully… I’m not so sure he’s wrong. I guess I just thought I could do some good, helping him out, partnering with him.” A self-deprecating sigh escapes him. “But who knows. Maybe it’s for the best.”

Several seconds pass, and the moment nearly turns somber, but Terry wills himself to snap out of it, bringing his focus back to the boy in front of him.

Matt’s no longer looking at Terry though, and when he finally speaks, his voice is small, penitent. “I’m sorry you don’t have your job anymore.”  

Matt fidgets a bit before glancing up at him shyly, and Terry blinks. His little brother has such long eyelashes. And his youthful little ski slope-nose combined with that cautious, yet curious expression makes him look just like a little cat, or a little fox, or something.

Terry feels his expression turn fond, emotion making his chest tight. “I’m sorry I haven’t been around, Matty,” he says earnestly, and he grasps Matt’s shoulder, needing the boy to believe him. “I promise that’s going to change. Okay, squirt?”

Matt nods wordlessly, almost imperceptibly, and Terry feels a rush of affection for him. He moves his hand to cup the side of Matt’s smooth, round face, the tips of his fingers brushing against the black hair above his ear, so fine and soft.

They stay like that for a moment, just looking at each other, the silence in the room only eased by the soft pitter-patter of rain against the windows. Come to think of it, Terry’s not certain he’s ever even been in the same room as Matt this long without the younger boy mouthing off. Terry wonders if he’s sick.

But Matt seems clear-eyed, even if his cheeks do look a little flushed. Maybe because he’s crowding the hell out of the younger boy, he realizes with a start. Terry’s own face heats when he sees a tiny tongue dart out to lick soft pink lips, and really, he shouldn’t be this close. His hand suddenly seems too large on Matt’s face, the skin under his fingers much too delicate.

Terry abruptly takes his hand away and lets it drop onto the bed between them, but somehow, in doing so, the air between them shifts, and a different sort of heaviness settles over them. As if it had somehow been wrong of him to have his hand on his brother like that, too – fervent – maybe, too tender.

A hot, disquieting sensation prickles at the back of Terry’s neck, under the hair on his scalp. Matt’s still watching him intently though, and maybe Terry is crazy but it almost feels like his little brother is daring him to look away. The silence stretches between them, now uncomfortable and loaded, Matt’s eyes suddenly much older than his eleven years, and Terry can’t—

He lowers his gaze, stomach twisting. But he scarcely has time to let his thoughts spiral, to anticipate the burn of shame, because he hears a tiny, unexpected huff of laughter, and he snaps his head up.

Matt’s eyes are amused little half-moons. “Loser,” he taunts, and he sticks his tongue out at Terry, playful.

The goad eases the tension, and Terry is pathetically grateful. He takes a deep breath, disguising it as a put-upon sigh, and ruffles the smaller boy’s hair. “Punk,” he mutters, and shifts to lay flat on his back, putting some space between them, but Matt just laughs again and squirms closer, cuddling up to him.

Relief washes over him, and Terry shakes himself internally, feeling foolish.

Besides taking him away from friends and family, his desire to perform well at his Batman duties has clearly been distracting him from his other, totally _normal_ teenage desires – his hormones now going haywire at even the slightest intimacy. Man, has it really been that long since he and Dana have been together?

Some internal voice answers strongly in the affirmative when he feels Matt’s hand slip under his t-shirt to graze his bare skin and Terry starts, stomach muscles tensing.

“You’re warm,” Matt mumbles by way of explanation, and Terry looks down to see his brother’s eyes close as he nuzzles his face into Terry’s chest, clinging to him.

He sighs, resigning himself to his fate as his brother’s human pillow, and wraps his arm around the younger boy, bringing a hand up to brush his fingers soothingly through the soft black hair.

But despite the calm, Terry’s skin is buzzing. His blood feels too close to the surface, the smaller boy’s weight against him too good… unbearably comfortable.

Terry makes up his mind. He’s definitely going to call Dana tonight. Or maybe he’ll surprise her out at the club.

With the evening to look forward to again, Terry eventually relaxes, and after the fitful night he had before finally manages to drift off for a couple hours.

Matt doesn’t, though.

A short while after he feels Terry's breaths deepen and even out, the smaller boy pushes himself up. Just a little, so he can see the peaceful expression on his brother’s face.

Matt wonders idly how much longer Terry will buy this calculated naivety – if he’ll ever identify the very intentional nature of his little brother’s innocence.

He brings his arm up delicately, careful not to wake the dozing teen, hand hovering for a lingering moment before he dares press his fingers, languid, to his brother’s lips.

Terry stirs, makes a soft little _'mnnn'_ sound, and Matt smiles.

He’s not sorry at all.

_-fin-_


End file.
